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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Unusual Breed: Alapaha Blue-Blood Bulldog

Forgot to post yesterday, so today will be a double post day. I said I'd come back to these guys.

An Alapaha (A-lap´a-ha) blue-blood bulldog

This is an interesting breed, being what I believe to be the only purebred bulldog that comes in merle, as in the dog above. It has been described as "American as apple pie." The author of the Retrieverman blog once mentioned to me that it would make much more sense if the mascot for the University of Georgia was an Alapaha rather than an English bulldog. I have to agree. The Alapaha name is a name heavily associated with the state.

A non-merle

The breed's origins are muddled, but are believed to begin with pockets of dogs in the south such as what were called the old southern white, mountain bulldog, and old country bulldog. Crosses with local curs resulted in the beginnings of what eventually became the modern Alapaha. The dogs were used by various people for a variety of purposes, including hunting and catching wayward cattle. The breed was at risk of extinction until a group of people set out to revive this "Ol' Tymey PlantationBulldog." In the past, the breed has gone through numerous names, including Otto and Catahoula bull (a name now given to crosses between Catahoula leopard dogs and Alapaha blue-blood bulldogs).

The Alapaha blue-blood bulldog is easy to train and a good family dog. It is described as "functional and unexaggerated," which is quite true when compared to numerous other bulldog breeds. They should be fearless without aggression and powerful but not bulky. It is smaller than the American bulldog, but nowhere near as small as the English bulldog. It is not prone to the breeding problems than are so common in the English bulldog. Overall, the breed is meant to be very functional, and many of them are still used for such purposes as protection and as catch-dogs for hunting hogs. However, type can vary greatly depending on what the dogs are being bred for.